Data acquisition on a host device, such as a personal computer, has seen remarkable improvements as technology evolved over the years. For example, various local peripheral devices are coupled to computer systems via a variety of recently developed technologies, including USB, IEEE1394, and other interfaces, for data transportation. Among these, the USB provides connectivity to one or more peripheral devices at significantly higher speed than traditional serial ports. Widespread adoption of the USB in industrial applications such as flash drive and thumb drive escalates data acquisition. Other than that, USB has a plug-and-play interface to search for and load an appropriate device driver for the coupled peripheral device. The plug and play feature brings great data portability, while such advantage always accompanies a certain shortcomings. Namely, connector (or plug) of the USB is rather delicate and vulnerable to damp or static electricity. Therefore, standard flash drive is usually equipped with a cap or cover to protect the USB connector from the risk of exposure.
Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a schematic diagram of a standard flash drive with a USB plug in prior art. Normally there is a cap 11 to protect a USB connector 12. After the cap 11 covering on the USB connector 12, the cap 11 is just matched with a case 13, thereby the cap 11 and the case 13 become one body collectively. The body can protect both the USB connector 12 and electrical parts (not shown in FIG. 1). During usage, the cap 11 may be taken off from the case 13 and easily lost. Once the cap 11 is lost, USB connector 12 may then be simply damaged. Hence, how to improve the disadvantage in prior art is the major discussion of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a flash drive with a retractable USB connector for eliminating chances of losing the cap for protecting the USB connector. As illustrated in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, a USB connector 22 is retractable and primarily controlled by pushing a button 21. When pushing forward the button 21, as the arrow indicated in FIG. 2A, the USB connector 22 protrudes out a case 23 of the flash drive. Reversely, when pushing the button 21 toward the direction as the arrow indicated in FIG. 2B, the USB connector 22 is withdrawn back into the case 23. Besides, the case 23 is provided with a slot 231 for allowing linear movement of the button 21. The slot 231 destroys the integrity of surface of the case 23, which could have been reserved for exquisite appearance design or other purposes.
Referring to FIG. 3, it shows a prior art flash device according to U.S. Pat. No. 6,808,400. FIG. 3A shows a USB connector 33 being hidden in a case 37. The USB connector 33 connects to a PCB 35, and a top of the PCB 35 has a plurality of springs 39 for withstanding between an internal surface of a top of the case 37 and the top of PCB 35. Meanwhile, the springs 39 are elongated. Depressing and pushing a pushing button 311 of a positioning structure 31 upward makes that a buckling piece 315 is inserted into a buckling hole 373 because the pushing button 311, an extended arm 313 and the buckling piece 315 are in one body. On the other hand, pushing button 311 connects with PCB 35 so that USB connector 33 is protruded out from a USB exit 371, as shown in FIG. 3B. At the moment, the springs 39 are depressed, and slightly poking up a poking piece 317 to take buckling piece 315 off the buckling hole 373 for recovering back to the status shown as FIG. 3A via spring force.
As described, the U.S. Pat. No. 6,808,400 employs springs, a buckling piece, and a buckling hole to launch as well as position the USB connector. When the springs are depressed, the USB connector is protruded out. Otherwise, the USB connector is hidden in the case when the springs are released. Utilizing the springs might be an easy way out, while can't keep the manufacturing cost down. Besides, the performance of the springs would decrease after constant depressing and releasing back and forth. Therefore, the primary focus of the present invention is to introduce a data storage apparatus to solve the problems mentioned above. A rotary driving mechanism is adopted for controlling movement of the USB connector. Through turning the rotary driving mechanism, the USB connector is able to either protrude out or draw back into the case of the data storage apparatus. Unlike conventional storage apparatuses, the present invention not only eliminates chances of losing the cap of the conventional storage apparatus, but significantly mitigates the problems of prior arts as well.